>>> good morning. combative and confrontational, joe biden and paul ryan come out swinging in their one and only vice presidential debate. >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of ma larky. >> mr. vice president, i know -- mr. vice president, i know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground. >> but without a clear winner, did the debate matter? >>> dire threat. defense secretary leon panetta issues a chilling warning about computer hackers. a scenario he describes as a possible cyber pearl harbor that could be as destructive as the 9/11 attacks. we're live at the pentagon. >>> and hello, brooklyn. the legendary barbra streisand takes the stage in her hometown for the very first time. ♪ beneath the moon, the stars and under the sun ♪ >> a homecoming concert decades in the making today, friday, october 12th, 2012. >>> from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today," decision 2012, with matt lauer and savannah guthrie. live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >>> and good morning. welcome to "today" on a friday morning. i'm matt lawer. >> good morning, everyone

the broadcast tonight, the showdown, biden and ryan, how did it go on taxes, medicare and more? their only face to face meeting is in the books now, the post debate is well under way. >>> and dire warning about the u.s. power grid's it could shut down banking and even the flow of water. now there is a new warning about the chance of a massive attack in cyber space. >>> and behind the scenes, a little known chapter of the american crisis, now shown on the screenment and tonight, ben affleck, on why he was drawn to this story. >>> and what got moms talking about how to stay in the picture for their kids. nightly news begins now. >>> good evening, the vice president debate is now history, and while all eyes are on next tuesday's presidential debate and the town hall format, we have learned the eyes of over 50 million americans were on last night's event, a crisply moderated event, rowdy at times, tense at times, between the two men who represented the largest age gap of any debate. paul ryan and joe biden were not at the top of the ticket, but the views were instant in both style and sub

challenging congressman paul ryan's take on foreign policy. >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey because not a single thing he said is accurate. >> reporter: they clashed oaf the economy, taxes and medicare with the democrat often on the attack. >> they're holding hostage the middle class tax cut. it's about time they take some responsibility. >> reporter: but ryan fired back. he slammed the obama administration's economic record. >> this is not what a real recovery looks like. we need real reforms for real recovery and that's exactly what mitt romney and i are proposing. >> reporter: ryan insinuated that president obama's debate performance last week was motivating the vice president. >> i know you're on a lot of duress to make up for lost ground. >> reporter: as for who won, it depends on who you ask. polls taken right after the debate are mixed. in a cbs news poll of uncommitted voters, 50% thought the vice president won. 31% sided for ryan and 19% called it a tie. 56% thought biden would be an effective president if necessary compared with 49% for ryan. not surpri

you for tuning in. tonight's lead, no hiding from biden. for months mitt romney and paul ryan have been running from their records, hiding their extreme far right agenda behind platitudes and big promises, trying to pin them down on specifics was like trying to nail jello to the wall. but that all stopped last night. we'll talk about all of it in the show tonight, how vice president biden took the fight to paul ryan on issue after issue. on taxes, on medicare, on abortion, on their plan to privatize social security and to gut medicare. joe biden simply dismantled the romney/ryan world view. but also talk about how the right wingers are trying to make a big deal out of joe biden's smile. so what? i would have been outright laughing in paul ryan's face. joe biden was fed up and who could blame him? >> with all due respect, that's a bunch of malarkey. >> and why is that so? >> because not a single thing he said is accurate. >> this is a bunch of stuff. >> what do you mean a bunch of stuff? >> it's simply inaccurate. >> it's irish. >> thanks for the translation. okay. >> malarkey. a bu

mitt romney and paul ryan earlier today on an airport tarmac in columbus, ohio. pointing at something, and ix naying any talking about the debate day because of that icrophone may. what mitt romney was alerting paul ryan to there, a suspicious looking boom mike hovering up above that was capturing what mitt ryan -- mitt ryan? what mitt romney and paul ryan were saying. the point mitt romney interrupted paul ryan is when he was saying, he was just acting so -- romney jumped in, careful, careful. ixnay on the talking. vice president joe biden took the final topic of last night's debate, issue of abortion rights and hit paul ryan with it pretty forcefully. >> if anyone had a doubt about what's at state in this election, when it comes to women's rights, and the supreme court, i'm sure they were said last night. it was made clear last night that they don't believe in protecting a woman's access to health care. it was made very clear that they do not believe a woman has a right to control her own body. these guys have a social policy out of the '50s. >> that was joe biden's first major camp

bunch of mullarkey. >> paul ryan shot back, being frank about what he thought was going on. >> mr. vice president, i know you're under a lot of duress to make up lost ground, but people would be better served if we don't keep interrupting each other. >> i want to bring in nicholas kristof columnist from "the new york times." there is talk about how vice presidential debates generally don't matter, they might have been more important last night because of the bad debate the president had last week. let's gist say if the goal was that biden was, needed to fire up the base, that maybe paul ryan was do no harm, is there a clear winner here? >> my take was i thought paul ryan did a very solid job. even on foreign affairs, which is not something he frankly knows a lot about. he was pretty solid. i do think biden, i would give it to biden on points, and he, while clearly he managed to antagonize a lot of conservatives, often he did manage to have an ability to be pretty biting and pretty sarcastic and deflating without coming across as really nasty. >> let me play a little more from paul ryan.

he really hated teachers and people like paul ryan. he just wants to push grandma over the class, future maybe if she's lucky, and little tables and beds. i mean, this is what they want people to think of really incredibly good and intelligent conservatives. and it is so over-the-top ludicrous. now, barack obama is the opposite of all those things. he loves puppies. u.s. people. he loves rainbows. and he is a total romantic. this man knows how to wine and dine his wife. unfortunately for us usually on our tax dollars. and he can do no wrong, even after this ridiculous record, the incredible damage has been done to the united states. none of it matters because the infatuation has turned into a full-blown affair that the media has had with him. now, i know we'll have audience participation at the end of the program, but as far as i'm concerned, you should feel perfectly welcome to user noisemakers to let the world know how you feel when we give our finalists to 2012 dishonors knuckle draggers award. here we go. first nominee of the night his former cnn correspondent, bob franken ta

msnbc. >>> debate day in america. vice president joe biden and paul ryan prepare to square off tonight in kentucky. new poll numbers show the current vp has his work cut out for him. according to a new survey from the pugh center, 39% of registered voters view biden favorably. that's compared to 44% who favor ryan. when it comes to predicting the winner of tonight's debate, 40% of registered voters say ryan will come out on top. 34% think biden will prevail. nbc's tracie potts has a preview of tonight's debate. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. the pressure is on vice president biden to try to turn things around after the presidential debate last week. he has the experience on the debate stage to do so. but as you saw in the numbers, it looks like the public is betting more on paul ryan. ryan took a bit of an exertion yesterday while he was practicing in florida saying that the vice president will probably come at me like a cannonball. but that the obama record, as ryan put it, is his achilles heel. ryan is in kentucky after debate preps in florida and virginia. he's don

congressman paul ryan and homeless ohioans in a soup kitchen. they were aloud once he pitched in for dish duty after that exchange. he was not alone. he had his family in tow. >> this is my daughter liza and sam and i've got other ones, charlie. >> like paul ryan, mitt romney also in ohio today. he is holding a pair of rallies, an indication of how critical the buckeye state and its 18 electoral votes are. president obama in virginia where he'll be preparing for the next campaign. the obama campaign has another tv ad out. it's narrated by none other than morgan freeman, the voice of vee a and the voice of god. >> every president inherits challenges. few have faced so many. four years later, our enemies have been brought to justice, our heros are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. >> and before you start sending your e-mails, the morgan freeman, of course, played god in "bruce almighty," just so you know. >>> the president landed in virginia a few moments ago. we're told he has no public meeting plans. kristen welker joining us. krist kristen, good saturday to you. >> good satu

bluegrass state. how much pressure faces paul ryan. and this morning, former penn state football coach jerry sandusky finds out if he'll spend the rest of his life in prison on 45 counts of child sex abuse, he already put out a taped statement denying it all. we'll have the latest from the courthouse as soon as it happens. it is happening within minutes there in pennsylvania. >>> good morning from washington, it's four weeks until election day, tuesday, october 10. will romney serve in national polling translate into gains where it really matters t battleground states, the mimpb battleground states of iowa, wisconsin and ohio. romney will not be president unless he can put these states in play. in a new pew poll conducted since wednesday. just last month in the same poll, romney trailed by eight points. driving romney surge, a spike in republican enthusiasm, more republicans made it through pew's likely voter screen than democrats. and a larger group of registered voters, the candidates are tied at 46. while it's unlikely returns on election day make it unlikely in this pew sample that romne

bills that paul ryan co-sponsored in the house to limit reproduction rights including access to birth control. so that's absolutely false and the president is absolutely right to point out to the supreme court, we are absolutely one vote away from overturning roe v. wade. we are one vote away from the safe and legal abortion access in this country. >> it's frightening to see how close we can go and the next president may decide one or two of those seats. joan, let me get back to this issue. the thing -- and i started with this -- is the almost shameless shifting by romney. because if you look in the 1990s and early 2000s, he was pro choice. let me show you some evidence of that. >> i believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. >> i will preserve and protect a woman's right to choose. >> so when asked, i make an unequivocal answer, yes. >> now, in fairness to mitt, he said he saw the light after that. he he changed his position. he grew. fine, but now he's going back. what are we seeing here? i'm a minister. i'm used to converts but do they go back and forth?

. >> thank you. >>> is paul ryan starting to feel the heed? just two days before his do-or-die showdown with joe biden. check this out. >> by kiting taxes, with the big tax cut? >> those are yours, not mine. >> thank you very much, sir. >> that was kind of strange. >> yeah take off that microphone. good luck trying that with joe biden on thursday. >>> plus big bird is still flying high and there are signs now that the great yellow friend is getting under mitt romney's skin. >>> and the inside story of the family intervention inside the romney campaign. it's a real shocker, and it really happened. you're watches "politics nation" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] how do you make america's favorite recipes? just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. [ ryan ] it doesn't get any better than endless shrimp at red lobster. you can mix and match all day! [ male announcer ] don't miss red lobster's endless shrimp just $14.99! try as much

. >>> joe biden and paul ryan went head-to-head in their only face-off. they clashed on almost two issues. who won? two polls gave two different views. one showed ryan 48% to 44% ahead. cbs news' flash poll gave biden the win with 50% compared to 31% for ryan and 19% called the debate a tie. for a look at some of the highlights, we go to steve handelsman at the debate sight in danville, kentucky. good morning. >> reporter: good morning from danville, kentucky where they differ sharply on practically all the big issues. these are smart, well informed politicians. paul rye yand and joe biden had reason to feel good last night. a long time democratic insider versus a republican young gun whose ticket has new momentum. mitt romney was watching, barack obama, too. the moderator from abc. they tangled on iran. >> they are closer to a nuclear weapon. >> we will not allow the iranians to get a nuclear weapon. you gonna go to war? is that what you want to do now? >> we want to prevent war. >> what about 47% of americans feeling entitled to benefits. >> i think the vice president knows sometimes th

moderate? and just listen to him on medicare. >> i can tell you this, when paul ryan is elected as vice president and i'm elected president -- >> now, mr. romney made those claims under a banner that says protect and strengthen medicare. did he forget that he signed on to the plan that would kill medicare as we know it? you know the one his running mate created. so this is the great mitt migration to the middle, the move from severely conservative to just severely brazen. the question is, can this new mitt move past the smell test? joining me now is congresswoman january kakowski and michelle cottle, correspondent for "the daily beast ". thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> congresswoman, let me go to you first. newt gingrich admits governor romney has changed. how will he answer this in the next 29 days? >> well, we have to double down and demand the truth and who do you trust becomes the real question now but you can't going from saying we shouldn't hire more teachers to saying, i love teachers. we need more. you can't say you're against the dodd/frank bill and then

is "reliable sources." there were heated clashes over the issues and joe biden and paul ryan squared off in kentucky but by a strange coy ens dense that was not the focus of much of the media. instead it was the mirkt and mockery by the vice president of the united states. >> when we look weak, our adversaries are much more willing to test us. >> with all due respect that's a bunch of malarky. >> on an obama administration. >> mr. bide snoon that's incredible. >> jack kennedy. >> now you're jack kennedy. >> i think the vice president very well knows sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way. i know you're under a lot of duress to make up for a lost round. >> the fox news crowd could hardly contain its distaste to biden's performance. >> i don't believe i have ever seen a debate in which one participant was as openly disrespectful of the other as biden was to paul ryan tonight. >> it was so disrespectable i agree with chris wallace. it was sort of almost unprecedented and hugely condescending. >> on msnbc where the gang was so depressed over president obama's lack

thursday's debate. paul ryan is in florida after studying after four days in a woodsy virginia camp. vice president biden is at home in delaware focusing on ryan's speeches and his budget. >>> national hospital is reporting yet another death from the meningitis outbreak. if confirmed, it would be the fifth deadly case in tennessee. that is the ninth nationally. at least 105 people in nine states from minnesota to florida have been affected. the cdc now believes 13,000 people in 23 states may have received the steroid injection that's are tied to the outbreak. and while many are believed not to be at risk, those who got the shot between late june and september are being urged to get checked. >>> for the very first time, we are hearing from jerry sandusky ahead of the sentencing this morning on 45 counts of child sexual assault. the former penn state assistant football coach was convicted in june of molesting ten boys over 15 years. prosecutors say about half a dozen of his victims will take the witness stand and sandusky himself is expected to testify at the hearing to defiantly say

, an interview. her guest was paul ryan. listen as she prattles off a series of talking points from a very official sounding and therefore trustworthy impartial organization. unfortunately though it isn't. just another far left pro-obama outfit. listen as she demands paul ryan admit his budget will hurt poor people, that everyone will suffer, that as a matter of fact he doesn't even like poor people. paul ryan deserves the nobel peace prize for not beating her around the hid and neck with a semifrozen flounder. >> budget and policy priorities, you're smiling you know about this. >> i do. >> 62% of the savings in our budget would come from cutting programs for the poor. that between eight and 10 million people would be kicked off of food stamps. that you would cut medicare by 200 billion. medicare and other health programs by something like 770 billion. where is the empathy in this budget? do you acknowledge that poor people will suffer under this budget? >> no. >> that you have shown a lack of empathy to poor people in this budget? >> now of course, any one of these, of course any one

paul ryan is ready for the first question in tonight's debate. so what do you bench? >>> pumped up and ready to rumble, sort of. >> it's my first time so, sure, it's a nervous situation. >> did you ever see me rope-a-dope? >> i think joe just needs to be joe. >> paul ryan set to clear any confusion about the romney/ryan ticket. >> i'm a pro-life candidate, i'll be a pro-life president. >> our position is consistent and hasn't changed. >> he can't clear up confusion on his own budget. >> i don't have the time -- it would take me too long to go through all the math. >> oh, brother. just spin already. >> i just got to ask what's your personal best? >> 1under three. >> holy smoke. >> i stand by what i said, whatever it was. >>> we are pumped up, fired up, and jacked up with just hours until tonight's first and only face-off between vice president joseph biden and vice presidential nominee paul ryan. and what was once regarded as a popcorn side show has taken on far greater significance in the wake of the president's less than scintillating performance last week. democrats are anxious,

hours until biden versus ryan. the stakes couldn't be higher. both sides are pumped up. paul ryan seems especially pumped up. >> before too long, we could become as a saudi we were never intended to be. we could become a society where the net majority of americans are makers, not takers. 70% of americans want the american believe. they believe the american idea. >> ready to rumble. watch out, uncle joe. actually, "time" magazine released these photos today showing congressman ryan pumping iron last december, not exactly the images he wants out the night before he needs to prove that he's ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. ryan's workout routine probably won't come up tonight but his macho vision for the country will and it should. ryan and romney are pushing a radical remaking of the social contract that americans have relied on for many decades. it's a investigation that includes a budget where 62% of the cuts come from the poor. cuts to medicaid, cuts to food stamps, pell grants, all while cuts to the defense department and oil industry continue as usual. ryan wil

after his knockout debate with paul ryan. >> stop talking about how you care about people. show me something. >> richard wolffe on the education of congressman paul ryan. >> ronald reagan -- >> now you're jack kennedy? >> ronald reagan -- >> "now's" terri o'neal on the romney ticket's disaster for women. >> if the romney/ryan ticket is elected, should those who believe abortion should remain legal be worried? >> david cay johnston on ryan's sixth study lie. >> can you guarantee this math will add up? >> absolutely. six studies have guaranteed. >> and what's more disrespectful? lying to america or interrupting a guy who's lying to america? >> it was openly contemptuous and disrespectful. >> karen finney on the right wing freak-out over joe biden's knockout performance. >> ever felt that way where you just want to deck somebody? >> an obnoxious drunk. i think somewhere during the debate he took ritalin. >>> good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. what did we see? we witnessed a schooling on the issues by vice president joe biden last night. it really was the sho

ryan as well as the chairman both trying to set the stage for tonight. let's listen. >> joe biden's been on will stage many times before. this is my first time. so, sure, it's a nervous situation. because joe biden is one of the most experienced debaters we have in modern politics. >> this is miss firhis first ti. joe biden's been doing this since the 1800s. he'll do a solid job. >> so when you listen to this, the base was pretty upset last night. you were quite passionate after the debate. will biden bring the old meat ax tonight? >> i don't think vice president biden will win or lose the election tonight, but he can reset the tone. hear's what joe biden has to do. forget paul ryan. it's the agenda. it's who these people are and what they want to do to this country. and there's nobody more equipped to step to the plate for the democrats than joe biden who knows the agenda of the democrats and the progressive movement in this country. where does paul ryan stand on his own budget that was passed twice? think about paul ryan. he has to go to the plate tonight and take a swing at tryin

and ryan will be aggressive tonight. here's the bp scoreboard going on. according to the latest pew poll, 40% of those surveyed believe congressman ryan will outdebade the vice president. only 34% believe biden will win this thing. ryan also has the upper hand when it comes to popularity. the congressman with a 44% favorable rating compared to the vice president's 51% unfavorable score. both have done a walk through of the room today and joining me now if you have a guy in your ring, i guess it is chris matthews, host of msnbc's hard ball. i pause for the applause. mark murray, nbc senior poe lits call -- >> got you at least. >> when you sit next to a big gun you've got to defer. your reaction to the president's debate performance is now legendary. they may put it in some kind of television hall of fame. you told it like you always feel. you have a new ad on msnbc. you say tonight it's not about looking presidential or vice presidential, it is about putting it on the line. >> well, what bothers me is that the democratic side in this case, the president and the vice president, they h

fluently, that's your problem, not mine. i know i'm supposed to only want good thing for ryan and i do but i'm not worried, he's going to kill it. maybe he will be sent up to the big show in november but i'm only human and after covering politics for years, sometimes a girl just wants a long, slow, deep, soft, wet kiss that lasts three days. so come on joe crash biden, this might be your last chance to do it your way. show me and meat how it's done in the bigs. go out with a bang. martin, it's all yours. >> i'm not sure we could take much more of that s.e., but thank you so much. good afternoon. it's tuesday, october 9th, and this race is tighter than a snare drum, so let's hit it. >>> four weeks to go. >> iowa is going to help elect me the next president of the united states. >> that's what's at stake in the next 29 days. that's why i'm running for a second term as president. >> four weeks to set the record straight. >> suddenly a guy pretending to be mitt romney stood on a stage next to me. what $5 trillion tax cut? i don't know anything about a $5 trillion tax cut. >> we are goin